Mind Mystery: Shadow Turmoil
by One-Trick Man
Summary: The opener to a series of epic stories that will all eventually link up. When Sonic and co. discover a mysterious new star in the sky, which releases an asteroid that hits Shadow, what will the outcome be? Read on to find out! Rated T for violence in the final chapter. Enjoy!
1. Right in the Heart!

Sonic blasted through Station Square, searching desperately for his friends, who had previously promised to come find him but had vanished into thin air.

"Guys? Are you here?!" he shouted, dashing through the bright moonlight. In and out of buildings, over bridges, through tunnels. He couldn't find them anywhere.  
"Come on guys, this isn't funny! I need to show you something important! NOW!" he yelled again. Suddenly, just as he was about to run again, something caught him by the shoulder and jumpscared him, making him gasp in shock.  
"For goodness-sakes, Tails! I said this was important!" Sonic groaned, turning to face a laughing, two-tailed fox.  
"Sorry Sonic, you know me, I can never resist a little jumpscare," he giggled. Sonic rolled his eyes and grabbed Tails by the wrist, as he saw his friends chasing him, he dashed off, still holding onto Tails, and dragged him all the way up a mountain; when they reached the top, he commanded everyone to sit. The only person who didn't obey was Shadow, very typically.

"Come on Shaddie! Sit with your friends!" Amy pretended to whine.  
"No thanks, I'm good here," he replied soullessly.

"So what exactly did you drag us all up here for, Sonic?" Silver asked.  
"Yeah! Some of us have Emeralds to guard, remember?" Knuckles roared. Sonic rolled his eyes again and pointed up in the sky. The eyes of all of his friends followed his finger blankly.  
"Oh my gosh, is that?-" Knuckles began.  
"It is," Sonic interrupted.  
"What is that?" Amy asked. Her eyes shining in the glimmering light of the object she was gazing at.  
"It's the Invincibility Star!" Tails spoke out, gaining everyone's, even Shadow's, attention.

"Ahem," he continued, "Long ago, it was said that two hedgehogs, who, much like myself, were deeply into scientific studies, and one day, when carrying out some research on Space, they discovered an unknown substance orbiting Mobius, they went on a little journey together to the highest point on the planet to investigate this object further. It was rough, but they succeeded. When they found out that it was a mysterious star, they managed to analyse a tiny little meteorite, the size of Amy's fist, that had absorbed some energy from that star. Unfortunately, the readings on their electronic systems were too complex to understand, so they only way to analyse it properly was to conduct a physical experiment. The experiment went wrong and some acid that they were using in an open bucket tipped out onto one of the hedgehogs' feet; this would normally kill the hedgehog or at least severely injure him ultimately, but somehow, not a scratch was found! The scientists eventually realised that this was a sort of 'aftertaste' of touching the meteorite with their bare hands. Some sort of supernatural energy must have seeped into their skin, which finally led them to dub this mysterious star: The Invincibility Star. It's also said that in other dimensions, remnants of this very star are commonly found on certain planets, whereas in dimensions such as ours, even a single glimpse of the star itself is insanely rare. This star is that same star, which has been burning constantly for over a billion years, and probably shall do so for another twelve million years at the least!"

At this point all of Tails' friends other than Shadow were staring at him in shock and amazement, not just at the fact that he knew all of this off by heart, but also they were fascinated by the story behind this 'Invincibility Star'. After a few minutes, everyone had calmed down again, and they were all in deep discussion about what seeing this star could mean for them and all of Mobius.

"I say we destroy it, the star could be extremely dangerous if it falls into the wrong hands, especially if Egghead discovers it!" Knuckles declared.  
"No! Let's just make sure nothing bad happens and try to collect any meteorites we find, we could store them and keep them for analysis and protection from threats!" Amy disagreed.  
"Why don't we just ignore it, I don't want to be involved in this, I don't know about you guys," Cream whispered.  
"No! I agree with Amy!" Tails shouted, apologising to Cream for disagreeing with her.  
"I think Knuckles makes a good point," Rouge interrupted.  
"I'm with Tails and Amy," Sonic added.

"Why don't you all just shut up!?" Shadow roared impatiently, "I don't know about the rest of you, but based on everything Tails said before, I think it's complete and total bullcrap! An invincibility STAR? Pah! Like I said, I have a bed to get to, but if the rest of you want to stay up here and freeze, I couldn't give a damn. Hmph!"

Just as he was about to angrily teleport away, Amy screamed, "SHADOW! LOOK OUT!"

Shadow turned his head in surprise and saw a tiny, burning meteor flying towards him. It hit him directly in the heart and caused him to fly all the way down the mountain, screaming in pain. He crashed right down into the ground at the bottom and before Sonic could get down to help, he shut his eyes.

And everything went black.

* * *

4 weeks later, Shadow woke up in hospital, with flowers, snacks and comics lying beside his bed on a table. On his other side and in front of him were familiar, blue curtains.  
A pretty, young nurse walked through the curtains just then and laughed, "Oh good, you're awake! Mr. Shadow T. Hedgehog, am I correct?"

Shadow nodded weakly in reply and she added, "It says here that you fell off a mountain after being heavily struck in the chest area with a burning meteorite and blacked out after crashing into the ground at the bottom of that mountain. Is that true?" Shadow nodded again.

"Well Mr. Shadow, you'll be happy to hear that in the 4 weeks that you've been here, we've searched your body for injuries, given you an x-ray and even analysed your insides for internal damage, and it seems that miraculously, there's not a single scratch on or in your body! By the rules of the hospital, you're now free to go," she explained. Shadow's eyes widened at '4 weeks' and then went droopy again when she stopped talking. He sighed and slowly pulled himself out of bed.  
"Those flowers, snacks and comics are for you, as get-well gifts from your friends, by the way. So you may want to take them with you," she said.  
"Yeah, thanks, do you have like, a bag or something?" he asked, sighing exhaustedly.  
"Of course!" she exclaimed, leaving his area and returning a minute later, adding, "Here." She handed Shadow a bag which he took and gently stuffed everything into it so nothing would break. He thanked the nurse again and left the hospital, lifting the bag over his shoulder. After he left, he turned back to the hospital and sighed confusedly, then proceeded to walk back to Station Square.

Coincidentally, Sonic and Tails were strolling around down and happened to notice Shadow in the distance, then ran up to him, taking him by surprise.  
"Shadow! Oh man, are you lucky to be alive!" Sonic exclaimed.  
"How are you feeling?" Tails asked.  
"I'm fine, absolutely fine. Apparently there's not a scratch on or in my body, so thanks for asking but yeah," Shadow answered.  
"Do you think it could have been the Invincibility Meteorite?" Sonic added.  
"Yeah, obviously," he sarcastically replied.  
Sonic and Tails looked at each other awkwardly, and then Tails said, "Shads, we're not joking."  
"I noticed," he rolled his eyes.  
"Shadow, no normal person on Mobius could have survived such an injury as you had without a single scratch left-over, even after 4 weeks there would still be at least 1 injury showing," Sonic explained.  
"Yeah, sure, but I'm immortal too, remember?" Shadow groaned.  
"Okay, fine, but you're not even giving it a single ounce of thought!" Tails argued.  
"Ugh, alright," he responded, then pretended to be considering the small possibility that they were right, which he didn't believe one bit, then added, "NO."  
"For goodness-sakes Shadow, are you even listening to us?" Sonic growled.  
"Did someone just feel a cold breeze?" Shadow mockingly shuddered.  
"That's it, I give up! Come on Tails, let's go!" Sonic shouted.  
"But-" Tails began.  
"Fine! Go then!" Shadow roared.  
"Fine!" Sonic repeated.  
"Fine..." Tails moaned.

The two hedgehogs and the fox then parted ways, all expecting for each other to act awkward around one-another in the future as a follow-up to their quarrel.

Still, Shadow was persistent and wouldn't consider that Sonic was right, even for a split-second. But one question kept circling around his mind against his will:  
" _What if?_ "


	2. An Untouchable

*Slam!*

"Jesus! Those low-lives are so annoying!" Shadow shouted, running down into his basement.

"Okay, Android, come out!" he added.  
"Hello master, how are you?" asked an android that looked like Shadow with yellow hair streaks.  
"I need your help with something, apparently, I got hit with a meteorite and now I'm fully invincible due to me being struck in the heart. I need you to fight me with Level 51 Power to see if I get hurt," Shadow commanded.  
"Level 51? Sir, you may die, I wouldn't want to kill you," the Android replied.  
"Just do it," Shadow demanded. The Android reluctantly nodded and got into a fighting position.

"HYPER DROP-KICK!" he shouted, then the Android leapt into the air, spun around and flew towards Shadow with a burning foot, striking Shadow across his torso. Surprisingly, he barely felt it.

"Fire Ray X2143!" he shouted again, followed by the Android holding up his hand and charging up a blue fiery blast, then when it hit Shadow, he barely moved.

"Whoa..." Shadow murmured, holding up his hands, "It can't be... ANDROID! LEVEL 52 LIGHT-SPEED ATTACK TORNADO TWIST!"

The Android stared at him for a moment as if his master had gone insane, but he ultimately started the light-speed attack and began spin-dashing around Shadow millions of times, creating an Oxygen-Barrier tornado that would normally suffocate a person, but Shadow was untouched.

"Sir, I believe my system is overheating, I need to recharge!" the Android called out.

"CONTINUE!" Shadow roared defiantly. The Android continued running until the tornado became a translucent-yellow colour. Suddenly, just as the tornado was about to rip through the ceiling, the Android collapsed, hit his head on the floor and bounced off it, crashing into a nearby wall and dislocating a shoulder.

Completely oblivious to his Android, he turned around with a shocked expression super-glued to his face, and looked around him.

"I don't believe this..." Shadow muttered.

"I'm untouchable!" he cried.

* * *

"Sonic?" Tails said.  
"WHAT?!" Sonic angrily replied.  
"Don't you think Shadow is the one who needs support at a time like this? I mean he did nearly die and must be having quite a shock when he realises that we were right," he asked.  
"No, Tails! Didn't you hear him? He's not open to other opinions! He's a know-it-all! He can't even accept that he's the luckiest animal on Mobius right now!" he answered.  
"But Sonic, he probably doesn't even know what he's talking about!" Tails repeated.  
"I SAID FORGET IT!" Sonic finally snapped.

At that moment, Shadow happened to be walking around the Square and noticed Sonic and Tails in the distance. Feeling a sudden wave of guilt overcome him, he blasted off into the crowd of people nearby, so he would be almost invisible to them.

"Crap!" Shadow whispered, "I need to find somewhere to relax where nobody can find me out in the open!" Then he had an idea and raced off to the local beach, which Sonic despises deeply.

For a few hours he relaxed there, going completely unnoticed, but then he saw something in the distance.

A dark red cloud...

"No way, it couldn't be..." he murmured. As the cloud closed in on the beach, seemingly enlarging rapidly as it did so, people started to scream and leave, but Shadow bravely stayed to see what would happen. Being unhittable clearly had some benefits.

A deep, demonic laugh then came from the clouds just as Shadow was about to go tell his 'friends'. He turned around and he saw...  
"BLACK DOOM!" he screamed. Sure enough, Black Doom, the notorious alien devil, had arisen once more to attempt to destroy Mobius and all of its glory.  
"BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! SHADOW, WE MEET AGAIN! HOWEVER THIS TIME, I SHALL RUIN YOU ONCE AND FOR ALL!" Black doom roared, and then Shadow went to warn his friends again, this time, nothing would stop him.

* * *

Unfortunately, by the time Shadow reached Station Square, his friends had already fled and disappeared.

"Well that's just great," he rolled his eyes and shouted, "CHAOS CONTROL!" and vanished into thin air, leaving behind a Shadow-shaped statue of dust that was ready to collapse at any random moment.

* * *

For some reason, however, the Chaos Emerald he wielded defied him, and warped him into a strange, dull building with supposedly nothing in it. He looked around confusedly and then heard something or someone screaming.

"SHADOW! SHADOW HELP!" multiple voices cried. Shadow, following his professional hunting instincts, was led to a sealed room by the trail of voice echoes. Eventually, he kicked the door down and saw before him all of his friends, even Sonic, shouting for help, after being trapped in a solid-steel cage with very little space.

"Guys!" Shadow shouted.  
"SHADOW! YOU CAME!" they all shouted back.

"AND NOW HE'S LEAVING!" a familiar voice roared behind him. Shadow spun around angrily and saw Black Doom again.  
"You!" Shadow replied.  
"It is I, Black Doom, I have returned to conquer your world, and burn you in the eternal fire of souls!" Black Doom continued.  
"Well you'll have to get through me first!" Shadow confidently replied, forcing them both into fighting positions.

"Shadow's gonna win this, no sweat guys," Knuckles laughed.  
"Mhm," everyone else grinned.


	3. Fire and Ice

After a long, heated (no pun intended) battle, Shadow and Black Doom were both tired and relatively unharmed.

Panting aggressively, Black Doom exclaimed, "I don't understand! How are you still alive?! I should have just incinerated you!"

In response, Shadow simply laughed and replied, "Using heat is a bad idea against me!" then he teleported behind Black Doom and drop-kicked him into a wall.

"GAH!" Black Doom roared, and then continued his battle with Shadow.

They kicked, slashed, punched, blasted, shot, thwacked, smashed, smacked and pushed each other for hours on end.  
Finally, Amy snapped, "SHADOW! JUST KILL HIM FOR FRACK-SAKES!"

Shadow nodded at Amy and ran at Black Doom, upper-cutting him through his torso and sending him whirling through the ceiling.

"Psst!" Sonic whispered. Shadow turned to him.  
"USE YOUR LIGHT-SPEED ATTACK!" he added. Shadow grinned, nodded and started charging his spin-dash. Rolling around in circles as fast as he could, he showed off one of his favourite attacks that he had learnt from Sonic's training and his Android.

Out of the circle, a bright red ring of friction was created, which raced through the metal floor and created smoke from the melted steel, that smoke, still affected by the light-speed attack, also created a tornado of smoke.

As Black Doom pulled his head out of the ceiling, he was automatically dragged into the tornado and shouted in pain as he became agonizingly dizzy.

Due to the intense friction, after 10 minutes it had already ended up setting the tornado on fire, and Black Doom screamed as he felt his lower body burn deeply.  
"HOW... ARE... YOU... DOING... THIS?!" Black Doom growled.  
"It's easy, you just have to believe..." Shadow answered, earning smiles from all of his friends.  
"NOOOOOOOOOO!" Black Doom cried as the Tornado reached its full power and Shadow broke the sound-barrier, creating a sound-wave that shot Black Doom straight into a wall and right through it.

Greatly weakened, the panting demon arose once more to face Shadow.

"I don't understand... how are you so... invincible?" he asked.  
"I can't tell you the secret ingredient, but I will say this. You and your Black Arms can keep away from Mobius, and you should probably give them a heads up if they defy you. There's a new hero in town, and he's ready for anything," Shadow confidently laughed. To finish off the battle, he leapt into the air, and lifted his fist. Everything went slow motion at that point.

" _Hang on, the Invincibility Star! Of course! He must have been hit in the heart and become permanently invincible!_ " Black Doom realised. Tails detected a twinkle in one of Black Doom's three eyes and shivered.  
"Oh no," he began.  
"What's wrong little bro?" Sonic asked.  
"I think Black Doom knows... He knows that the only way to kill a being with powers and body defence mechanisms that depend on their insulation, is to cool them down!" Tails exclaimed, followed by everyone gasping.

Black Doom grinned, flew into the air, and met Shadow's fist with his own.

"SHADOW! DON'T HIS FIST IS MADE OF ICE-" Tails screamed, but Shadow couldn't hear him.  
"Chaos... Fist!" Shadow roared, colliding his fist with Black Doom's. The fiery fist and the freezing cold fist met and created an explosion that literally blew Shadow's friends out of the room.

"SHADOW!" they all screamed as they fell to the ground next to the building. Shadow gasped in horror and went to save them, but felt his legs going numb. He cried in pain and realised that he was freezing.

"Now I know your weakness... BAHAHAHA! THIS IS PERFECT! NOW I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT TO THIS WORLD WITHOUT YOU BOTHERING ME! MUAHAHAHA!" Black Doom roared, clicking his fingers and opening up a black hole above his head.

"What... have... you... done..." Shadow gritted through his teeth. Suddenly, the black hole began to absorb everything in its path except Black Doom.

"Ended your role as Anti-Hero of Mobius! FAREWELL, SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG!" Black Doom laughed once more, before the now-fully-frozen black hedgehog collapsed to the ground, paralyzed. The only things he could still move were his eyes. As they closed guiltily, Shadow allowed himself to be sucked into the black hole, expecting his fate to be quick and painless.

And that was the end of Shadow the Hedgehog...

"Mwahahahaha... AHAHAHAHAHAHA! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Black Doom laughed devilishly as he slowly transformed Mobius into a living, worldwide nightmare.

It was all over, the heroes had failed, Mobius had fallen by the hands of the Black Arms.

* * *

"Wha- Huh? Where am I?" Shadow exclaimed as he awoke. He was in a completely black area, and was seemingly all alone. He looked around him and declared that he had no idea what was going on, was he in peril? Was he safe? Was he dead? What was going on?

Shadow finally snapped after a while and screamed, "HELP!"

And the sound echoed all throughout the universe.

 _ **TO BE CONTINUED.**_


End file.
